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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS As California heads into high summer in the midst of its fourth year of a punishing drought, the question most residents ask is whether the state has hit the limits of growth. Iftheanswerisyes,then radical lifestyle adjustments must be made. University of Southern Cal- ifornia historian Kevin Starr, who has exhaustively chron- icled the fluctuations of the state's fortunes in his multi- volume series "California and the American Dream," is can- did in his evaluation. Starr told the Los Angeles Times that Mother Nature didn't in- tend for 40 million people, to- day's population, to live in California, and that the cul- ture which has since 1880 con- tinuously invented and rein- vented itself is on the brink. California is not, said Starr, about to cease functioning but will have to make major changes in the coming years. Those modifications will have to start soon, and should be- gin with dramatically reduced water consumption. Some ex- perts predict that the drought could last for decades if not indefinitely. At jeopardy during the sus- tained drought is California's economy. California's $2.2 tril- lion economy is the world's sev- enth largest and is, as reported by the Times, more than qua- druple 1963's $520 billion economy, adjusted for infla- tion. The median household in- come jumped to an estimated $61,094 in 2013 from $44,772 in 1960, also adjusted for in- flation. In what may be Califor- nia's most daunting challenge, the largest contributor to the state's economy—agriculture— also uses the most water. Ap- proximately 80 percent of Cal- ifornia's surface water is allo- cated to agriculture. According to the California Department of Finance, Cali- fornia will have 50 million res- idents by 2050. Today's 40 mil- lion Californians struggle to comply with a mandatory and first-ever 25 percent water re- duction usage to accommodate its 164,000 square miles of farmland, coastal regions, and cities. Desert cities like Palm Springs have been ordered to cut water usage by 50 percent. Forty million is more than double the 15.7 million people who lived here in 1960, and the state's labor force exploded to 18.9 million in 2013 from 6.4 million people in 1960. Governor Brown agrees with Professor Starr but isn't as worried. Brown says that if Californians live "more el- egantly," the state can eas- ily house 10 million more peo- ple. The metaphor Brown likes to use is "Spaceship Earth," where everything is reused. Brown, however, said little about the billions in the dollar costs of planning, engineer- ing and implementing systems that would recycle water. Californians have taken tiny steps in the right direc- tion. Public utilities pay their customers to replace their lawns with drought-toler- ant landscaping. As a result, consumption is down in ma- jor cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco compared to the 1980s, a major triumph given that during the elapsed 30 years, California's popu- lation has soared, home con- struction has exploded, and thousands of new businesses have opened. Optimists like Professor Starr predict that Califor- nia will, over time, change it- self into a state that can cope with the drought and what- ever other natural disasters may come its way. After all, Starr reminded Californians, in previous eras the state has run out of electricity, and even money, but always rallied back from the brink. Pessimists, however, can't envision any practical solution to coping with an additional 10 million people who will put pressure on California's wa- ter supply, and its roads, high- ways, schools, and hospitals. When looking ahead, Califor- nians comfort themselves with the "one day at a time" mantra. JoeGuzzardiisaCalifornians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1987. Contact him at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org. Joe Guzzardi Thefutureof California's 50 million residents In what may be California's most daunting challenge, the largest contributor to the state's economy— agriculture— also uses the most water. Approximately 80 percent of California's surface water is allocated to agriculture. MoreonIsrael and Palestine Editor: I got another solicitation Tuesday from the Jewish Voice Today in the form of a maga- zine. The main article in it was ti- tled "Is Peace Possible?" Mean- ing of course peace between Is- rael and Palestine. The sim- ple answer is no. That is, not as long as there are still some Pal- estinians able to defend them- selves. The Israeli government is do- ing its best to remedy that situ- ation. There is not one day that I don't find another atrocity Is- rael has committed against the Palestinian people. For the life of me, I can't un- derstand how the poor Pal- estinians are able to sur- vive today. Their condition is far worse then South Africa's Apartheid. Forget about military aid, Palestinians can't even get hu- manitarian aid. Their homes are constantly being destroyed and they are terrorized and ha- rassed night and day by the Is- raeli "defense" force. Tell me how you would feel if thugs, and that's exactly what they are, busted your front door down, killed two or three of your siblings and told you your place was theirs now be- cause God gave it to them back 6,000 years ago? The conflict isn't over Is- rael's right to survive, it is over Israel's right to destroy. So far we've given them the green light and even though they sunk one of our ships — USS Liberty — and merci- lessly killed our own people, we continually ship them mili- tary equipment. The killing of our people seems to me a far greater offensive than desecrat- ing our flag. Peace in the middle east will only commence when we stop arming the belligerent side. — Orval Strong, Gerber Trump and Mexican immigration Editor: In expressing his opinion on illegal immigration, I appreci- ated that Donald Trump didn't pander to popular opinion by sugar-coating his words. Mexicans are streaming across our border in droves — taking American jobs and over- whelming our police, jails, lan- guage, courts, culture and healthcare system. Why should America grant citizenship to such people? Why should we en- courage their actively and un- apologetically violating our laws and encroaching on our natural resources, culture, freedom and quality of life? I think Americans mistakenly assume Mexicans are just like us, except maybe less-educated and speaking Spanish. The dif- ferences are far more extensive and destructive than that, and the resulting problems we must all accordingly suffer are per- vasive and enduring. Just their speaking Spanish isolates them and slows and blocks them from assimilating American values and norms. This undermines America's ability to function as a single, unified country. My own Mexican neigh- bors, unaware and uncaring about American laws and social norms, continually maintain nuisances with their loose and noisy animals. Their dogs rou- tinely chase and harass me, my pets, pedestrians, equestrians and other animals. They defe- cate on my road, and their guin- eas screech obnoxiously, defe- cate on my walk, and damage my garden. My Mexican neighbors un- apologetically and often blast stereos and leaf blowers and are constantly cutting old, majes- tic trees down. That is, to make room for more unsightly struc- tures and fences they haphaz- ardly throw together with the junk they accumulate. Their unrelenting, obnoxious behav- ior perpetually undermines my happiness and peace of mind. These neighbors have erected a sign threatening to kill me pointing down into my back yard. After two months of com- plaining to the sheriff, DA and the local HOA, a sheriff's deputy finally came out and made them take the sign down. It was back up in two days. It might not be fair to say all Mexicans are selfish, unlaw- ful and unethical, but obviously those illegally migrating to America are. Further, America's resources — water in particular — are already being depleted at an alarming rate. We don't need this depletion accelerated with more fast-multiplying Mexican immigrants. The CDC reports that in 2006 Mexicans were producing 2.8 children per couple versus the rest of America's 1.9. Accord- ingly, Mexicans are now solely responsible for America's swell- ing population that's fast-erod- ing our environment, natural resources, language, laws, free- dom and quality of life. Most Americans probably aren't fully aware of the grim realities all of America's facing from Mexican immigration. So when I see a seemingly aware, sensible, tough and honest man like Donald Trump throwing his hat in the presidential ring, I'm thinking maybe there's hope for America, yet. You don't see many politicians with these qualities this day and age. Now I'll admit, I haven't sat down and thoroughly evaluated Trump as a presidential con- tender. Really, I haven't much faith that any candidate elected via America's deeply-flawed election process would make a good president. However, just from what I've learned about Trump through the scandal as- sociated with his immigration statement, I'm liking him more than any candidate I've seen in quite a while. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Your opinions Cartoonist's take The drama over Greece's fi- nancial crisis continues to dom- inate the headlines. It appears a deal has been reached providing Greece with yet another bailout if the Greek government adopts new "austerity" measures. The deal will allow all sides to brag about how they came together to save the Greek economy and the European Monetary Union. However, this deal is merely a Band-Aid, not a permanent fix to Greece's problems. So another cri- sis is inevitable. The Greek crisis provides a look into what awaits us unless we stop overspending on warfare and welfare and restore a sound monetary system. While most commentators have focused on Greece's welfare state, much of Greece's deficit was caused by ex- cessive military spending. Even as its economy collapses and the government makes (minor) cuts in welfare spending, Greece's mil- itary budget remains among the largest in the European Union. Despite all the handwringing over how the phony sequestra- tion cuts have weakened Amer- ica's defenses, the United States military budget remains larger than the combined budgets of the world's next 15 highest spending militaries. Little, if any, of the mil- itary budget is spent defending the American people from foreign threats. Instead, the American government wastes billions of dol- lars on an imperial foreign policy that makes Americans less safe. America will never get its fiscal house in order until we change our foreign policy and stop wast- ing trillions on unnecessary and unconstitutional wars. Excessive military spending is not the sole cause of America's problems. Like Greece, Amer- ica suffers from excessive wel- fare and entitlement spending. Reducing military spending and corporate welfare will allow the government to transition away from the welfare state without hurting those dependent on gov- ernment programs. Supporting an orderly transition away from the welfare state should not be confused with denying the need to reduce welfare and entitle- ment spending. On reason Greece has been forced to seek bailouts from its EU partners is that Greece ceded control over its currency when it joined the European Union. In contrast, the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency is the main reason the US has been able to run up huge deficits without suffering a major economic cri- sis. The need for the Federal Re- serve to monetize ever-increas- ing levels of government spending will eventually create hyperinfla- tion, which will lead to increas- ing threats to the dollar's sta- tus. China and Russia are already moving away from using the dol- lar in international transactions. It is only a matter of time before more countries challenge the dol- lar's reserve currency status, and, when this happens, a Greece-style catastrophe may be unavoidable. Despite the clear dangers of staying on our recent course, Con- gress continues to increase spend- ing. The only real debate between the two parties is over whether we should spend more on wel- fare or warfare. It is easy to blame the politicians for our current di- lemma. But the politicians are re- sponding to demands from the people for greater spending. Too many Americans believe they have a moral right to government support. This entitlement men- tally is just as common, if not more so, among the corporate welfare queens of the militarily- industrial complex, the big banks, and the crony capitalists as it is among lower-income Americans. Congress will only reverse course when a critical mass of people reject the entitlement men- tality and understand that the government is incapable of run- ning the world, running our lives, and running the economy. There- fore, those of us who know the truth must spread the ideas of, and grow the movement for, lim- ited government, free markets, sound money, and peace. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at VoicesofLiberty.com. Financial crisis Ron Paul warns: Greece today, America tomorrow? OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, July 18, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6